Awakening
by RabidYaoiFanboy
Summary: Sealed for six years, Sephiroth and Vincent awaken to two familiar faces. Unexpected knowledge and old memories resurface, changing the outlook of our heroes, now racing against time and clones to save a doomed Planet.AU,experimental.Yaoi. ON HOLD
1. Chapter 1

Warm hands. That was what Sephiroth remembered about Cloud. The silver haired man looked up at the back of the lid to his coffin, shivering. Warm, warm hands. And a warm smile and warm eyes and warm voice and just….warm. So unlike his hometown, so unlike himself.

He didn't sleep. Because when he slept he dreamed. Dreamed of what the Others did in his absence. Hojo…had locked him in this casket, keeping him contained. The Jenova in his blood had proved inert….so Hojo had used one of the clones to carry out his plans. And through those accursed cells, he could see everything.

Burning. Cloud was burning. And he couldn't help but scream into the darkness, eyes spread wide and seeing nothing.

And then darkness overwhelmed him.

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Vincent Valentine blinked as soft candlelight filtered in through the cracked lid of his sarcophagus. The blonde men blinking down at him from either side looked curious, and he blinked back.

He found that his limbs, rusty and stiff, still moved as he sat up, cracking his back loudly. He looked beside him, seeing a coffin even more chained than his had been. He realized that his joints would soon give out after so long without use, so he tried to speak.

"Let him out too." he said, groggy from sleep. Something in his head rumbled sardonically as he rolled out of the coffin, stumbling into the rougher blond blearily. "Tell him to shut up." he muttered, before falling, only to be caught again.

"Other…person?" the spiky blond asked, and the pilot…he smelled like grease and wind and tea and smoke, blinked at the dark man in his arms.

"I fear I cannot stand, after so long. Please tell him to shut up. He's screaming too loud." the man muttered, blinking to adjust his eyes.

"ooookay….Spiky, cut him out." the man barked, and the man…Spiky, how appropriate. Chains clanked and the lid was pushed off. Both of them gasped, and the smoker dropped Vincent to the ground. He looked up indignantly as he fell sideways, trying to pick himself up.

Green eyes starred blankly up at the ceiling, and the inside of the lid was clawed and bloody. White cotton scrubs covered the slender form of their sworn enemy. Only it wasn't. there was no tattoo or scars, just a forever youthful face that starred up at them.

Cloud looked down at the man, hands over his mouth. He remembered…seeing him, Hojo's suppression technique had broken and he fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face and a sob caught in his throat.

"What the fuck is gon' on?" Cid asked the man he had picked up again, and the brunette shrugged.

"Some sort of history, I imagine. With Hojo…it is likely. I am Vincent valentine, who are you?" he asked, and the man blinked.

"Fuckin Cid Highwind, and dun ferget it!" he said, and settled Vincent against the wall as he lifted the other man out of the coffin. Silver hair, obviously allowed to run rampant during his imprisonment, fell to the floor in waves. And Cloud shuddered, reaching out.

"Seph…Seph, baby…it's me. Remember?" he asked in a whisper, and Cid nearly choked on his unlit cigarette. He watched as the silver head turned, eyes blinking slowly, filling with glowing green tears. Fuck, the man all but oozed Mako.

"Cloud…is it…you?" he asked in a whisper, one arm, the fingers covered in blood from trying to get out, stroked his face. Cloud gasped sharply, leaning into the touch. Vincent tugged on Cids pants him.

"A little assistance, Cid Highwind. I am still unable to stand right." he said softly, clearly an indication to leave the pair alone. "His screaming has stopped, and the blond one can hear again. I would like to see the sky." he said, and Cid nodded, helping him upright.

"Craziest thing…."he muttered, and Vincent shrugged.

"The labs may have more information than this crypt. It's a little further from here." Vincent said, gesturing past a set of doors to a ladder. Cid nodded, heading for it to begin the search.

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Nine hours later, Cid was ready to call the cynical gunner a friend. The dead lizard thingy helped, and the fact that the man could read Hojo's scrawl. Apparently, the crazy Sephiroth they had been chasing was a clone. Not the bona fide general, just a clone that had assumed his identity. It was also not the clone who'd almost killed Zack Fair or Cloud himself.

"Well fuck me dry and serve me to a Marlboro." Cid said softly as he looked over the files they had uncovered. Vincent hummed in agreement, perched on a table and surrounded in papers.

"I would echo that sentiment if I could, Cid Highwind. As it is I shall just say that you are right." he said softly, and they looked up as the door opened. Cloud was supporting Sephiroth on his shoulder, the man looking angry.

"It appears that Jenova is trying to…Reunite?" He asked softly, picking up a file that Cid had thrown. Vincent nodded absently, looking over another file.

"It seems that Hojo has degenerated more in the years since Lucretia locked me away." he said softly, and Cloud blinked.

"Who?" he asked, and Vincent looked up at him, closing the file with a snap. Sephiroth grunted softly as he was settled beside Vincent. He shook his head softly, pinching his forehead in thought.

"The researcher who turned me into what I am. She is also Sephiroths mother." he said, picking up another file. "She also apparently is the one who drugged my Hojo." he said, and the three jerked to look at him. He had said this with tight lipped rage.

"Wait…your….Hojo?" Sephiroth asked, and Vincent nodded, lips pursed as he read another file, this one written in a feminine scrawl.

"Yes. Before…before we were stationed here, me and Hojo were lovers." he said, slapping the file down. He picked up another one, this one red. "She was determined to break us up….she resorted to drugging the both of us with behavioral modifiers. Hojo….he did shoot me yes, but that's because Lucretia ordered him to."

"Damn." Cid said softly, rubbing the back of his neck. Cloud nodded, settling next to Sephiroth, who wrapped an arm around his waist. This did not go unnoticed by Cid.

"Hojo…used a memory suppressant on me." cloud said softly, leaning into the taller man, who rested his head on his shoulder. "five years…Cid, I'm not seventeen, I'm twenty-two." he said, voice also soft, reverent. The broken mako tanks in the corner were mute testament to his lost memories.

"Zack…what happened to him?" Sephiroth asked, and Cloud looked up at him sadly. He looked lost, like he didn't know.

"With Hojo…who knows. He was brilliant. It is likely your friend is somewhere still, in stasis or worse. There is one option….at the Reactor, there is a Mako Cave. He may have found refuge there after his injuries at the hands of Number One." Vincent said, and he sighed. The last file was dropped to the floor, papers fanning out in the gust.

"We can go back to the others later." Cid said, and he opened the door. "Let's leave this for a little while. You two need to get out of this crypt." he said, and Cloud nodded. The two sleepers could move a little better now, and followed the blonds.

"I think….I would like that." Sephiroth said, and Cloud smiled, taking his hand. The four made their way out of the labs, looking up at the stars for the first time in a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

"It started, I think, back when Gast dug up Jenova."

The four people that had come out of the mansion were now sitting in the meeting all of old Nibelheim, the only place large enough to hold AVALANCHE under a roof from the rain outside.

"I had just been assigned to the project as an…observer. The President was interested in the life form that was now viable. That was where I met Him."

Vincent Valentine started his story in the thunderous din of a Nibelheim summer storm, much like the one that had broke forty years ago.

_The Bone Village summer was cold at best. Vincent was not unused to cold, but he did not particularly care for it. However, his mark was rather partial to it and Professor Gast was now drawn into his work. It had been colder than normal and now Vincent was thawing by the heater, buried in dry blankets. _

_He made a disgruntled noise as the door to the skull house opened, and he glared one red eye out from his haven of heat. Stomping off his boots was a gangly young man, barely into his twenties. Maybe only a year or two older than Vincent himself. And Vincent had to wonder at him for a moment. _

_Gast had been happy to see his latest assistant, immediately heaping the paperwork on him while he proclaimed about his New God. It had been eight months since he had found the specimen now being carefully unearthed from the ice. _

_Hojo Kataki had been fresh from the university, a Wutaian stray taken in as an example of Shinras 'goodwill'. Vincent knew he was only a pawn to fill a statistic, a name on a list to keep the peace. But…that was part of his charm too. Hojo was so unused to any sort of extreme that he spent days sitting at the fireside doing Gasts paperwork, happily inside. _

_And that meant he and Vincent formed some sort of bond. Vincent hated the cold. Hojo loathed it with every fiber of what he was. Apparently Bone Village was near his home, and he had not been well liked there. But here…Vincent had been captivated. _

_The gangly young man had this way of making you feel like you were the best person on the planet. He was innocent, naive, and to a certain point, sweet. It was such a contrast to the cold Turk that he could get along with the very large, fat Gast like he did. Gast was not the nicest man, and Vincent rather hoped he was frozen in an ice block somewhere. _

_Seven more months had passed before either of them had any sort of real conversation. Vincent was no talker, and preferred his long, detailed manuals or books to the dry, factual reports Hojo read. And the most contested thing in the little skull was shelf space for books. Vincent absolutely refused to set The Lord Of The Rings on the bottom shelf, and Hojo's 'Biology in Ancient Days' simply could not be moved. _

_It had been an epic battle. Lines were drawn. Buttons pushed. And in the end the two had fallen into bed exhausted from managing to fit fifteen volumes on one shelf. The fact that clothing had conveniently made itself scarce helped immensely, and Hojo for the first time in nearly nine months, was warm. _

Vincents voice trailed off as the audience starred at him, almost stricken. He sounded so heartbroken reciting all of this to them. It made the man seem so…human, hearing about how he had loved someone like that, and how the two had just been normal. Painfully normal.

"It was not until several weeks later when Gast had finished unearthing the Jenova Specimen, that We were separated. Hojo went to Nibelheim to place the specimen in her holding tank, and I was sent to Midgar for my next assignment." here was where the finality had come in. that cold tone that said the matter was closed.

"We had…ten years. Maybe eleven, but right now I'm not sure if that year counts at all. It was…Her who drove the final wedge home."

_She had been beautiful. Vincent remembered that much from Gasts files on her, and he was rather awed at her rapid rise in ranks. If her file was correct at twenty-eight she had managed to do what Hojo only just accomplished at Twenty nine. Become head of a department. And the fact that she had done it so quickly was suspect enough. _

_But if her file got any cleaner he'd have to investigate himself whether or not she was bona-fide. he never saw it coming until it was far, far too late. Honestly, it had been too easy to get to him, so it could have been attributed to him. _

_Vincent was back after a month long mission to Wutai when he saw the changes. Hojo never smiled anymore, and he looked drawn. When confronted he changed the subject, and Vincent was forced to drop it. But it had still bothered him. _

_Then one day it just…didn't. he didn't talk to Hojo, he didn't even really know his lover at all. Over the course of the last month he had been exposed to a mind altering drug developed by Lucretia Crescent and Gast. He had been used…and slowly he had begun to hate his lover. Lucretia had snapped him up and his heart had screamed out in anger. _

_Then he remembered the gunshot. Hojo had smirked at him, mind completely enthralled by Jenova now, and Vincent meant nothing. Over the course of the next year or so Vincent had been kept in a tank. Sephiroth had grown and been born, and Lucretia discarded him. Hojo's efforts had proved too great to overcome and so the man had sealed him, madness consuming him as the drug and Jenova cells ate at his mind. _

"I was thirty-six when that thing that used to be my lover shot me. Hojo is dead. He has been for a long time." the voice was sad, and more than one person had tears in their eyes. Yuffie was sobbing, and Tifa was comforting her a little bit, as she could. Aerith had become very still, considering this dark man before her.

"So you're saying that Jenova…using the mind and body of your lover….set these events in motion decades ago?" she asked, and Vincent nodded in his strange way.

"I am afraid so. She has been very busy these long years…and only a swift intervention on my part prevented our Son from the fate of his…replicas." he said, tapping his temple. "Hojo was furious. So was Lucretia." and the others nodded.

Chaos had already introduced himself.

"So…what next?" the voice was Clouds, small yet strong, eyes fierce now, and whole again. Tifa had nearly broken down when Cloud had remembered himself at Sephiroths awakening.

"We destroy the shell." The voice was soft, guttural, and filled with hate. "Jenova…is not in that shell any more. Number One made sure of that. No, her Psyche is in someone else's body….always has been." he tried to sit up but winced. His side was damaged still from the blow that Chaos had dealt him with his claws. "And I think I know whose."

"Who is it, Seph?" Yuffie asked, eyes still teary as she scrubbed her face.

"Lucretia Crescent. My mother."

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Okay….this was maybe waaaay too fun to write. And oddly enough I did it without really looking at my keyboard! Yay!

This is what I want it to be. BLATANT AU here…no likey no ready. I'm aware that Medic! Is genderbend…this one is not. It is merely my interpretations of the motives of the characters. And I don't like Lu. So there.

Here's to you, Rosie X333and Mort, you make a feppic Hojo.


End file.
